Today’s anxiety-driven political post is about The Paris Agreement.
In 2015, 190+ individual parties (countries, and the EU) made a pledge to try and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures from rising above 1.5°C, and try to prevent it from reaching a total increase of 2°C.
(For my fellow Imperial System users, a rise of 1.5°C = a rise of 2.7°F, and a rise of 2°C = a rise of 3.6°F)
It doesn’t seem like a lot and I think that’s part of why not a lot of people are taking it seriously. Thing is, it’s just going to keep getting worse, and scientists already believe that a mere global increase of 2°C / 3.6°F will cause a lot of problems. More frequent flooding, more wildfires, and the massive loss of delicately balanced ecosystems like the coral reefs are just a few of the nasty effects we’ll be seeing.
I mean, we’re already seeing some bad effects. Look at the UK, which is experiencing more heatwaves than they’re used to, and their current infrastructure isn’t developed for that kind of constant heat. Look at the United States, which is experiencing hotter summers and a decrease in snowfall. Look at Australia, and India, and China, and everywhere else.
And the current policies in play aren’t going to let us reach that goal by 2100, much less 2050. The pledges that have been made might get us closer, but aren’t quite enough either.
It’s only going to get worse from here. For the US, Trump’s already promised that he’ll withdraw from the Paris Agreement again upon his reelection.
I’d like to see this get reblogged and spread around more, maybe with people chiming in with resources and tips about what all of us can do to try and put more pressure on our governments to do better. I’m really not comfortable with the fact we’re globally staring down the barrel of a gun and there’s barely been any progress to try and resolve it.
(This post is meant to be a short read and doesn’t include all the information. I’m not intentionally withholding anything, just trying to keep it short and relatively simple. If you have any additions, I would love to see reblogs with them—I’m actually counting on the Internet’s love to correct and add on to things, so this can be spread further out.)
I don't have anything to add, just rebloging. Anything I could say would be, "you can't spend money if you're dead".
